A realistic view of what this loss means for the series

^ no we don't have a different definition. You are talking about a myth that I've heard for a long time. Just because fans invent convenient excuses for crappy play does not make it true

Rusty as an excuse completely disregards that there might be Unfixable issue which excuse-giving fans are not wiling to admit to. Rust It's a myth. Just a sorry excuse. Playing crappy, undiscipline ball with no urgency is not rusty, it's a bigger problem than that

 

unforced errors.

They won't have this many TO in next game or likely any of them.

It's far from over and I am little surprised someone who has been around since the old days like you is so doom gloom thinks it's over.

Sure it's not ideal going down a game yet I was walking out of summit when we went down 3-1 against phx.

heard the same negativity and people cursing the team.

Sure we dont have olajuwon but harden and howard are hardly tomato cans. Guys like brewer that I know will also bounce back.

No faith here people.

Lots of youngens here that havent lived it yet like you have to know it's not over.

Correctable things guys. Come on.

Also how did harden go from mvp to the worst player of all time in this boards mind? Most bipolar fan base ever. negativity is really honestly sad.

Im a rockets fan but wouldnt want to be in the foxhole with pretty much any of you guys.

Give me your gals number since you all are ready to crawl and die at the first sign of anything.

Pretty shameful the lack of back bone of majority here. and then in same breath calling out the whole team for a bad night of TOs? Sure it was a loss but credit to clips that had nothing to lose. Remember we won games all year without our players and for clips in a weird way it gave them a boost. It happens a lot. Apparently not for most of you because the sky is falling.

Everything you did has already been done including down 0-2 and 3-1.

Come on people

 

We are not 'defending multi champion team of decade and pop coached' Spurs

We are the 'get blown out by 15 points at home with Chris Paul out' Rockets.

 

Isn't that the same Rockets that over the course of 82 games got handed blow after blow including the loss of their starting PF, the co-star of the team and staring center, the 2nd string PF who became a valuable starter when the first starter went down, and also lost their starting PG? Isn't that the same team that had a crappy game one?

If you want to ignore all that this team has done, that's up to you, but based on the heart and history that this team has shown this season, there's no need to give up all hope.

 

Are you talking to me or Will? Will is the gloom one, today. I'm the one who started the thread about "Something Fixable"

 

Game 5 against Dallas, we had 21 TOs. Last night, Rockets were extra careless with the ball and had 24 TOs. Rockets are also one of the highest TO teams in the league, so it's very likely we'll have another high TO game in this series.

There have been a lot of things that needed to be corrected going back to round 1 but those have not been corrected yet. We better correct them now if we want any hope of making this series competitive.

Most rational fans aren't saying Harden is trash, but the whole Rockets effort and attitude outside of Dwight was trash in game one. You can give up games like that in the regular season, but doing it in a playoff series against a tough opponent, especially without their top 2 player, is handicapping your chances of winning the series heavily. Not being able to defend your home court against a depleted team is embarrassing.

ClutchFans is so allergic to criticism of our team. What's wrong with calling a spade a spade?

 

Rockets in 5


...or 6

 

Remember last year we lost both games at home with a far inferior team to a similar team and almost came back and won that series. This year we have a far superior team. We got this.

Believe!!!

 

these 2012 and newer board members suck right now. This team is going to be just fine harden will get it together and lead his group to a win in game 2. Dwight will shut griffin down and take the task of defending him. We're good it's just one game and the best one to lose if you are to lose a game. This is the playoffs I know some of these guys are too young to remember the last time we had a legit contender playing in Houston Because that was back at the summit.

It's hard to win in the playoffs and stuff gets exposed but the clippers arnt exactly the most disciplined team either we just didn't play hard after that 13 point 2nd quarter lead we got. It's like we thought they were going to lay down and give it to us. Hello they got doc rivers coaching that was never going to happen. With that said I'm not worried at all because this team has been tested all year. Is is. It the time they fold. The warriors and cavs and hawks all have lost their home court advantage in the playoffs this round just like the rockets no need to panic it's the PLAYOFFS!!!

 

Good news - it is just G1.

Good news - it is still a great opportunity. Memphis just beat the Warr (isn't a surprise to me and that's why I was so glad Clippers drew Spur). It was such a great great setup for the Rockets that night when Spurs lost to N.O. and when Memphis won that last regular season game. It is even more of a gift when they actually went 7 games and are banged up. Great opportunity still.

I don't believe because this team has no discipline, a Coach that can't get his team to focus and a Coach that is a negative enabler that the players have to overcome themselves. I could believe because the players might just finally get it.

Just win the next 2.

 

I agree with your points. But have to disagree with your closing statement.

It sounds like by admission, the Rockets can't beat a Healthy Clippers squad in a best of 7 series?

I believe the Rockets are good enough to win it all this year, which would include a series victory against a healthy Clippers squad. The only thing that could set the Rockets back is the good ol "shooting themselves in the foot repeatedly". That of course can't happen.

 

Yes, it is a speculation on my part. But sometimes we forget that players are actually human beings and not machines. People react differently to such an outcome. Olajuwon tried to prove the voters wrong. Unfortunately Harden didn't.

 

Ok, let's say Harden's play was adversely affected by the MVP voting. Hopefully he has put that behind him moving forward. The Rockets cannot afford for Harden to be "down and out of it" anymore.

 

Even with that 21 TO Game in Game 5 (which we ran away with), the Rockets had 11.9 TOs per 100 Possessions (TOV%) against Dallas. That is top notch.

Totals were
Game 1 11 TOs
Game 2 11 TOs
Game 3 14 TOs
Game 4 10 TOs

Round 1 shows that we went a long way to fixing "it" even against a Carlisle defense. But that doesn't mean we can't have bad games, too.

 

I usually check the Front Page before plunging into the chaos that follows a game like this, and Clutch's quote from Will's OP stared me full in the face. Know what the impact was? Truth. Disgusting, depressing truth. We can beat the Clips, in my opinion, even if Paul is healthy, if we play like we are capable of playing. That we uncorked a humiliating effort in game one, on our home court, and with CP in a suit tells me one thing. The players on this team will either wake up and smell the coffee, win tonight, win Friday or Sunday in LA to take back home court to get this series and our post-season back on track, or it's going to be a very, very long off-season. An early off-season. An epically long off-season filled here, again, with endless end of the world threads and posts for weeks on end.

I know which scenario I prefer. Show us you're up to the task, Rockets and the coaching staff. Show us, or I suspect that we will see yet another upheaval in player personel, and quite possibly the coaches on the bench. This game was an utter humiliation. Show us that you can claw our way to at least a 7 game series, a series that equals the series the Clips just got through playing with SA. Then, win or lose, we'll get some of our pride back. Something to build on for next year. Better yet, claw our way to a victory in game 7, and prove that this was an absurd failure on our part to take this game seriously and an unneeded lesson shoved in our face by a team that is willing to put out the effort to win at all costs. An effort I thought us capable of until Monday night. I'm beyond tired of watching my team uncork games like this at the worst possible time.

 

Agreed. No more excuses. Curry had a bad shooting last night l bet the emotions of winning MVP celebration has to do something with it.

 

Welcome to Clutch City all of you non believers. This thread would have been harsher based on the 93/94 and 94/95 teams, which lost the 1st 2 at home during one of those years. Game 5 is the key, whoever wins that game and takes a 3-2 lead will win the series. We must get to 5 first and we will win 1 game in LA, that's just the Clippers, they cough up games as well.

 

Exactly - this is why I do NOT believe in the "3-point is worth more than 2-point" debacle that the Rockets GM has going. A 3-point shot is worth 1 more point, yes, but at what cost? It is a lower percentage shot, the long rebounds lead to a fast break for the other team, and you end up taking much fewer higher-percentage shots (driving to the basket, looking to get the other team in foul trouble, etc), thus diminishing your chances to win the ball game.
A quick example that happens way too often - a player is driving to the basket for what is an 80% chance of a basket (layup or dunk), but at the last second he passes the ball to another player who has been camping at the 3-point line. The result - a shot that has a 30-40% of going in. This makes no sense at all.
Another example - if the Rockets take their "average" 30 3-point shots in a game - wouldn't they fare better by taking only 15 three-point shots and making the other fifteen shots "high quality, higher efficient" shots? How many more points a game would this be - ten to fifteen, maybe? maybe more?
Would this make a difference in the games? Absolutely!
I don't think the Rockets are playing a highly-efficient game nowadays. All this 3-point shooting frenzy is not NBA basketball, rather a high-turnover, low-percentage shot-taking game. They are playing as if they were the Globetrotters, not an NBA team.

 

some of you need to refer to the above post every once and awhile